Afternoon summary
- Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit minister, has claimed that the Ukraine war has illustrated how the Partygate scandal was just “disproportionate fluff”. (See 12.49pm.)
- Boris Johnson has used a speech to the Scottish Conservative party’s spring conference to repair relations with the Scottish party leader, Douglas Ross. Ross called for Johnson’s resignation over Partygate, but last week withdrew his letter demanding a no confidence vote, saying the war in Ukraine meant changing leader would not be appropopriate. In his speech Johnson paid tribute to Ross, saying that he had stopped Nicola Sturgeon winning an outright majority in the Holyrood elections last year. In what came across as a laboured joke about Ross’s call for a leadership election, Johnson also said that Ross deserved credit for saying “loud and clear” what was obvious to everyone - that now was not the time for another independence referendum. (See 5.03pm.)
Johnson ends by attacking the SNP for wanting to get rid of the nuclear deterrent, and by insisting that the country is stronger united.
And that’s it.
(I was right earlier. Zhenia Jenny Dove’s speech was far better.)
Johnson pays tribute to Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader.
He says Ross has been successful because “he is the only political leader in Scotland saying loud and clear what should be blindingly obvious to everyone ...”
Johnson is speaking slowly, and this seems to be a self-deprecating joke - about Ross saying a few weeks ago that Johnson should resign.
Johnson goes on - “ ... that this is not the moment ...”
To be having a Tory leadership contest? Ross withdraw his call for Johnson’s resigntion recently. So Johnson is making a self-congratulatory joke?
After what seems to have been a double tease (but it is not clear) Johnson goes on:
“ ... to be having another referendum”.
So he is praising Ross for opposing another indendence referendum.
Johnson says “one day” HS2 will make it to Scotland.
Johnson is now summarising his levelling up agenda.
He is now mocking Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, describing him as a “humble crofter”, and joking about his penchant for waistcoats.
Johnson says it would be “crazy” to completely shut down UK oil and gas production, only to buy it at a mark-up from Russia.
Yet that is the policy of Labour and the SNP, he claims.
The government will continue to help the North Sea oil and gas industry, he says.
He says cutting off domestic production would expose the UK to blackmail by President Putin.
After a briefing introducing from Douglas Ross, Boris Johnson takes the stage.
He says he spoke to President Zelenskiy of Ukraine this morning, and told him Britain was supporting him, and that it would do more.
He claims that the resolve of the world to see Russia defeated is growing.
President Putin will fail, he says. He says Putin underestimated the resolve of Ukrainians, and the determination of the west to support the country.
He says Britons have come foward to offer their homes to Ukrainians. And in Scotland the highest number of offers has come from Aberdeenshire, he says.
Tears and a round of applause for @Fitmouse #Ukraine followed by a minute’s silence pic.twitter.com/ndsz2IwZry
— @petermacmahon (@petermacmahon) March 18, 2022
At the Scottish Conservative conference Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory leader, is now on the stage with a Ukrainian Scot, Zhenia Jenny Dove. She explains how horrified she is by what is happening in her country. She recalls growing up in Ukraine, and admiring western civilisation. When they had a can of Fanta, they would fill it with water after drinking it, to pretend they still had western luxuries. She goes on:
What what is so painful to realise for me now is that it’s also the reason why we are being punished by our neighbours, purely for wanting to be like you, to have the freedom to speak your mind, to elect your own politicians, to drink Fanta.
We don’t want to live in a country where journalists fall out of windows, where traitors get poisoned with chemical weapons, where labs forged the results to win medals and where grannies get beaten up for holding an empty placard.
She says she is grateful for the help her adoptive country has offered Ukraine, and she says the welcome being offered to Ukrainians now is heartwarming.
And she says she wants to say something about the people coming over: “They’re the most hardworking and friendly bunch you will ever meet.” They could be a great asset to the post-Covid hospitality sector, she says.
She ends by urging the British to keep helping Ukraine.
The tenacity, bravery and unity of Ukrainian people is something to behold and admire ..
The only thing I asked, I beg please, don’t let them die. Like that spiritual ancestors, they deserve so much better. And they’re fighting for freedom. And there’s nothing better to be fighting for.
It’s a terrific speech. Boris Johnson will have a hard job matching that.
UPDATE: Here is an video clip.
'While Italy was worried about Gucci sales and Germany was shipping discontinued helmets to the Polish border... British anti-tank weapons were already being used on the front line'
— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) March 18, 2022
Ukrainian-British Zhenya Dove says Ukrainian soldiers have been 'singing God save the Queen' pic.twitter.com/oAOwDyrGgT
Updated
Back at the Scottish Tory conference, this is from ITV’s Peter MacMahon.
Miles4Lothian is Miles Briggs MSP, the shadow cabinet secretary for social justice.
Ahead of @BorisJohnson speech condemnation by @Miles4Lothian of Vladimir Putin and a message from @ScotTories #Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/GfByRYYC31
— @petermacmahon (@petermacmahon) March 18, 2022
Economic optimism at record low, poll suggests
Economic optimism in Britain – defined as the proportion of people who think the economy will get better rather than worse over the next 12 months – has plunged, and is as low at it has ever been since these figures were first compiled 44 years ago, the polling company Ipsos Mori says.
It says economic optimism is now “worse than at the start of the pandemic and during Black Wednesday, and only matched by the very high levels of pessimism during the summer of 2008 and at the start of 1980”.
Normally low economic optimism is terrible news for a government. But these figures have been generated by the war in Ukraine, which has also enabled Boris Johnson to lift his own ratings somewhat – although, overall, his ratings remain poor.
The poll also gives Labour a four-point lead over the Conservatives, down from a nine-point lead in January.
Updated
The National Education Union has urged the government to review its decision to end regular Covid testing in schools in light of the latest case numbers. (See 4.43pm.) In a statement, Kevin Courtney, its joint general secretary, said:
Today’s survey shows the percentage of primary/nursery-aged children with Covid has risen significantly in just a week, from 4% to 6.3%. This now equates to two infected pupils in every primary class on average.
The removal of restrictions has at every stage of the pandemic resulted in infection going up. Vaccination has played a critical role, but schools remain under pressure and we must ensure the least disruption to education possible. The government’s decision to stop Covid testing in schools has made education disruption more likely, not less.
At such a critical time, with exam season looming, leaders are now faced with challenges on staffing and in some cases a sudden increase in remote learning. The government should reconsider its decision to end regular testing in schools and must certainly drop its premature proposals to start charging for LFD test kits. Schools and many families will struggle to afford them, putting a simple safety measure out of reach.
Updated
Boris Johnson's speech to Scottish Conservatives' spring conference
Boris Johnson is about to give his speech to the Scottish Conservative party spring conference in Aberdeen.
There is a live feed here.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, says the Scottish government’s “super sponsor” scheme for Ukrainian refugees is now open.
1/ The @scotgov ‘super-sponsor’ scheme for 🇺🇦 is now open. If you are seeking refuge from the war, 🏴 wants to welcome you - by selecting “Scottish Government” on the UK visa application site at https://t.co/zA5k1cAqYy we hope to offer you a quick & easy route here.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 18, 2022
2/ The screenshot below shows the page on which you should select ‘The Scottish Government’. Choosing this option means that you do not have to arrange an individual sponsor before coming to Scotland. We will help you do that once you are here pic.twitter.com/OPGDMQA8fg
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 18, 2022
And these are from my colleague Rowena Mason, who gets all the best assignments.
For some reason, I’m on a tram being driven by Oliver Dowden going forwards and backwards inside a depot pic.twitter.com/KmVTC7RsWp
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) March 18, 2022
Do I also want to go on a rollercoaster with Oliver Dowden in a totally empty Blackpool Pleasure Beach? pic.twitter.com/n82U4RVloQ
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) March 18, 2022
Good news reminder. Tulip Siddiq MP has posted a new picture of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, cooking with her daughter Gabriella on her second full day back in the UK.
Nazanin told me that this is what she missed most while she was imprisoned - every day moments with her little girl.
— Tulip Siddiq (@TulipSiddiq) March 18, 2022
Today was Gabriella's choice of making homemade pizzas for lunch ❤️#NazaninIsFree pic.twitter.com/8moJ5rw59T
PM claims it is not up to him to decide if he would be allowed to host Ukrainian refugees at No 10
Sky News has just shown some footage of an interview that Boris Johnson gave to readers of First News, the newspaper for children. One of them asked him if he was planning to house any Ukrainian refugees at No 10. In response Johnson said:
Well, I’m not the ... I’m a mere tenant – I’m not even a tenant, I don’t know what my status is exactly. I’m the temporary occupant of this place. It is up to others to decide how that would work.
If we could do it, and I’m sure people would welcome it. I’m sure there are a lot of people here who would want to do it.
This was a classic example of how Johnson hates not giving people the answer they want to hear. We know that the answer is no, because No 10 said so last week, arguing (not unreasonably) that given that the PM’s flat is at the top of Downing Street, taking in Ukrainian lodgers would not be practical and would raise security issues.
But, rather than explain this, Johnson first of all pretended he had no say in the matter (not an argument he used when it came to redecorating the flat with expensive wallpaper), before going on to hint that it might be a possibility.
Updated
ONS says Covid rates still increasing in most of UK, with almost 3.3m people infected last week
According to the Office for National Statistics, Covid rates were continuing to increase in England, Scotland and Wales last week. And in Northern Ireland they were increasing in the two weeks up to Saturday (12 March), but the ONS says the trend in Northern Ireland is uncertain for the second of those two weeks.
The ONS coronavirus infection survey, which is regarded as the most reliable guide to the prevalence of Covid, because it involves testing people randomly, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms, has published these estimates for the spread of coronavirus in the four nations last week.
England: One person in 20 (equivalent to around 2,653,200 people)
Wales: One person in 25 (equivalent to around 125,400 people)
Northern Ireland: One person in 14 (equivalent to around 130,600 people)
Scotland: One person in 14 (equivalent to around 376,300 people)
These figures imply almost 3.3 million people in the UK had coronavirus last week.
As my colleague Hannah Devlin reports, Covid rates among the over-70s are at a record high.
Updated
Dowden tells Tories to prepare for general election in May 2024
And here are the party political lines from Oliver Dowden’s speech to the Conservative spring conference.
- Dowden, the Conservative party co-chairman, told Tories to prepare for a general election in May 2024. He did not quite announce the date, but May 2024 has for a while been seen as the most likely date for the next election and Dowden implied that that’s his assumption too. He told his audience:
From May we’re going to launch our two-year election campaign.
He said the campaign would involve a target seat strategy, similar to the one used used in 2015. He said the next election was “going to look a lot more like the campaign of 2015 [which the party won narrowly, against expectations] than the campaign of 2019 [which it won easily]”. The party would have to fight it “seat by seat, promise delivered by promise deliver, doorstep by doorstep”, he said.
- He said he was reopening the Conservative party’s candidates list because he wanted to attract a more diverse range of potential MPs. He said:
Our candidates must reflect the new Conservative party, the party of Darlington and Doncaster as much as Devon and Dorset, the party of mill towns and mining towns as much as the metropolis.
So today I’m announcing that we are reopening the candidates list for the next general election with a big open call for candidates.
We don’t mind what you do, what job you do, what you look like, how old you are, or where you’re from. We’re just looking for people with real political conviction who instinctively share our Conservative values. We’re looking for people with judgement, with integrity, and with wide-ranging life experiences.
And, for the first time, candidates will be put through a new process, a process that matches the very best in class from organisations and businesses all around the world, and gives us the most representative and best candidates we’ve ever had.
- He attacked Keir Starmer as “dull, uninspiring and bereft of ideas”. He also criticised him for having wanted to install “that Nato-hating Putin apologist” Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister, and he claimed that Starmer was a prisoner of the “cancel culture brigade”
You know, Starmer, he cannot resist kowtowing to the cancel culture brigade because his base are the cancel culture brigade. He’s frightened to defend women’s rights or protect our heritage from vandals because he fears he would be cancelled.
Johnson tells Zelenskiy UK will work with allies to increase military support for Ukraine
Boris Johnson had another of his very regular calls with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, this morning. Here is the read-out from No 10.
The prime minister reiterated his disgust at Russia’s barbaric actions in Ukraine and his admiration for the steadfast resistance of the Ukrainian people in the face of tyranny. He said the entire United Kingdom stands with Ukraine.
President Zelenskiy updated on the situation on the ground and Ukraine’s evolving military and humanitarian needs. The prime minister set out the additional defensive aid the UK intends to provide and committed to work with allies at next week’s Nato meeting to step up military support to Ukraine.
They also discussed progress in ongoing peace talks. The prime minister offered his support for Ukraine’s position in negotiations and the president said the UK’s close involvement was highly valued. The UK will continue to exert pressure at all levels to oppose Putin’s act of aggression, including through sanctions, lethal aid and diplomatic action.
Updated
Dowden tells Tories Britain needs 'a bit less net zero dogma'
There was not much policy in the Oliver Dowden speech, but the Conservative co-chairman did include an interesting passage attacking “net zero dogma”. If you had heard the key passage out of context, you might have assumed that you were listening to Craig Mackinlay or Steve Baker - two of the leaders of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, which represents Tory MPs calling for a net zero rethink - rather than a member of the government.
Dowden said the government was committed to ending Russian oil imports by the end of the year, and that it was looking at options for ending gas imports too. Then he went on:
Now, of course, that means investing massively in our offshore wind and other renewables. But it must also mean developing new nuclear projects and re-incentivising new oil and gas exploration in this country as we transition.
Because, do you know what? I really think the British people want to see a bit more Conservative pragmatism and a bit less net zero dogma.
We are Conservatives. We exist to conserve Of course we will get to net zero. Of course we will save the planet. We just don’t want Vladimir Putin taking it over while we’re getting on with it.
Boris Johnson has already told energy companies that he wants to boost investment in oil and gas extraction from the North Sea, and so Dowden was not announcing anything new. But his tone marked a departure from what we used to hear from the government. Only five months ago, when he unveiled the government’s net zero strategy, Johnson said: “Our strategy sets the example for other countries to build back greener too as we lead the charge towards global net zero.”
Dowden, of course, is more politically focused than his cabinet colleagues - his main job is to secure the party’s re-election - and his comments may be a sign that he’s been spooked by Nigel Farage’s recent decision to launch a national campaign to kill off net zero policies.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
This is from my colleague Rowena Mason.
Dowden says the Tories are going to launch their 2-year election campaign from May onwards and it will be more like 2015 than 2019 > sounds like a bid to entrench Boris Johnson as the candidate
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) March 18, 2022
I’ll post a full summary of the speech when it’s finished.
Rees-Mogg says Ukraine war has shown that Partygate scandal was just 'disproportionate fluff'
At the Independent Andrew Woodcock has written up what Jacob Rees-Mogg said about the Ukraine war exposing the Partygate controversy as mere “fluff” at a fringe meeting at the Tory spring conference earlier. (See 12.03pm.)
Rees-Mogg, the Brexit minister, said the war was “a reminder that the world is serious” and that it showed the relative unimportance of things like rows about language (Rees-Mogg seems to have spent much of the meeting banging on about “woke” terminology). He went on:
I would say the same about Partygate. All of that is shown up for the disproportionate fluff of politics that it was, rather than something of fundamental seriousness about the safety of the world and about the established global order.
When we look back in 36 years at Partygate, people will think, ‘What were they on about? They were moving from Covid to Russia and Ukraine, yet they were distracted by whether or not the PM spent five minutes in his own garden.’ It’s fundamentally trivial.
Updated
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party co-chair, is speaking at the spring conference now.
There is a live feed on the party’s Facebook account.
No 10 says there could be 'ramifications' for P&O Ferries if it broke employment rules
At the Downing Street lobby briefing the No 10 spokesperson said that the government was looking “very closely” at the conduct of P&O Ferries, to establish if the company acted within the law. He told journalists:
We are looking very closely at the actions that this company has taken to see whether they acted within the rules.
Once we have concluded that, we will decide what the ramifications are. Obviously there are a lot of valid questions in relation to existing contracts, etc.
The TUC believes that the company did break the law. This is what it said in a briefing issued yesterday.
Employers are legally required to consult workers during a statutory notice period before making workers redundant. P&O did not do this, so trade unions believe that the actions by P&O are likely to be unlawful. In addition, employers wishing to make more than 100 redundancies must notify the business secretary at least 45 days in advance of those dismissals (for 20 dismissals, it is 30 days). They must also state in that notification when consultation with the relevant unions and workforce commenced. Ministers must urgently clarify whether they were notified of P&O’s intentions, If they were not notified, then trade unions believe that the actions by P&O are likely to be unlawful. The relevant legislation is sections 188 and 193 of the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA).
At the No 10 briefing the spokesperson also said the P&O Ferries’ plans were not raised in the meetings that Boris Johnson held in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday. P&O Ferries is owned by DP World, which is owned by the government of Dubai.
SNP claims Sunak's two-minute video speech to Scottish Tory conference insulting to Scots
The Rishi Sunak speech to the Scottish Tories is over. Paul Hutcheon at the Daily Record says it lasted two minutes, and amounted to just 322 words. He has already filed a story quoting an SNP MSP, Rona Mackay, describing it as insulting to Scots. She said:
In the middle of a crushing cost of living crisis the man who holds the purse strings thinks it’s appropriate to devote just two minutes of his time to his own Scottish party conference ...
This speech was nothing short of insulting and perfectly demonstrates Westminster Tory disdain for the people of Scotland.
Rishi Sunak is now addressing the Scottish Conservative conference by video link.
There is a live stream here.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Brexit minister, has been speaking at a fringe meeting at the Tory conference. As Sky’s Sam Coates reports, he refused to defend the national insurance increase (which he has reportedly opposed in cabinet).
I asked JRM whether he could make the case for the NI tax rise, given it was agreed in September before many elements of the cost of living crisis evident
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) March 18, 2022
He sidestepped the question and referred it to the Chancellor, but did add Conservatives need to get back to tax cutting pic.twitter.com/jgjLgFeW3y
Rees-Mogg also said the Ukraine war had shown that the partygate controversy was just “fluff”.
Shapps condemns 'insensitive and brutal' conduct of P&O
In his speech at the Conservative spring conference Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, condemned P&O Ferries for the way it dismissed its 800 workers yesterday. He was applauded as he told the audience.
I want to take the opportunity to put on record my shock and my dismay at the insensitive and brutal treatment of its employees yesterday. Sacked via a pre-recorded Zoom video with just 30 minutes notice. No way to treat employees in the 21st century.
Sunak tells Tories plan for rest of this parliament is to 'keep cutting taxes' to get tax burden down
Here are the key quotes from the Rishi Sunak Q&A.
- Sunak, the chancellor, insisted that his plan for the rest of the parliament was to “keep cutting taxes”. He said that he was very clear at the budget that after that he wanted no more tax rises. And he want on:
My priority going forward is to cut taxes. I made that very clear at the budget ...
My plan over the course of this parliament is to keep cutting taxes, get the tax burden down. That’s what we believe. We want people to keep more of their own money. We want to help grow the economy. But I want to do that in a responsible and sustainable way. But I now believe we’re on a path to do that.
Economists would query the “keep” in Sunak’s statement. Yesterday the IFS published an analysis saying that that Sunak has put up taxes more in the last two years than Gordon Brown did in 10 years. But Sunak claimed that his decision to lower the universal credit taper rate (a Treasury giveaway, but technically a benefit increase) amounted to a tax cut.
- Sunak defended his decision to raise taxes, saying it would not have been responsible to let borrowing keep rising. He said:
I did not get into this to have to put up people’s taxes. I’m a Conservative, I’m a conservative chancellor. It’s the last thing I wanted to do.
But I also take really seriously my responsibility to you, our kids and to the nation’s finances, and making sure that we fix the problems that coronavirus caused, where our borrowing went up to the levels that we haven’t seen since world war two, and our debt was forecast to just keep growing and growing and growing into the future - I didn’t think that was right. I didn’t I didn’t think was morally right. I didn’t think it was economically responsible.
- He said that, in raising taxes to stability the public finances, he was following the example of Margaret Thacher. He said:
Much as people forget Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson, who I hugely look up to for inspiration, they had to do some similar things at the start of that period, which people forget.
In fact, the most notorious Thatcher tax increases came when Sir Geoffrey Howe was chancellor, not Nigel Lawson.
- He suggested that next week’s spring statement would contain measures to help people with the cost of living. Asked what would be in it, he replied:
I can see that, and I have enormous sympathy for what people are going through at the moment and that’s why we will always be there to help make a difference where we can.
I can’t solve every problem, no government can solve every problem, particularly when you are grappling with global inflationary forces - they are somewhat out of my control.
But as you saw a month or so ago when we announced the very significant intervention to help people meet some of the additional costs of energy bills, where we can make a difference, of course I can - I’m always going to do that, we’ve done it over the last two years.
- He said the Johnson premiership had gone from “crisis to crisis”. He was referring to Brexit, Covid and Ukraine, not partygate. He said:
It has been a little bit - for all of us actually, the Prime Minister more than anyone - just crisis to crisis, it feels like that. Which isn’t great, I mean it’s not great for any of us.
Hoax calls to Ben Wallace and Priti Patel would not have posed security risk, says minister
James Heappey, the armed forces minister has expressed confidence that Britain’s national security was not compromised by a hoax caller who managed to get through to two of the most senior members of the cabinet, PA Media reports. PA says:
A cross-Whitehall security inquiry has been launched after home secretary Priti Patel and defence secretary Ben Wallace were targeted in what ministers believe was a Russian plot.
The alarm was raised by Wallace after he became suspicious during a 10-minute video call on Mircrosoft Teams on Thursday, supposedly with the Ukrainian prime minister.
He ordered an investigation into the security breach, but serious questions remain about Whitehall security afterPatel said the same thing happened to her earlier in the week.
Heappey said this morning that Wallace was “very cross” as it should not have been allowed to happen.
But he expressed confidence that Wallace and Patel would have known not to discuss sensitive security matters on a system such as Teams which the Russians could easily listen into.
Heappey told the Today programme:
Ben’s suspicions were aroused when somebody if he was who he said he was would have known full well that you don’t discuss military movements on Teams because the Russians are watching.
Priti, like Ben, day in day out is dealing with matters of national security. When you deal with matters as sensitive as those great offices of state do, you get an instinctive feeling for what you should be saying on each means of communication.
I have every confidence that Priti would have known she was on a Teams call. However long it went on, the content would have been appropriate to a Teams call.
Heappey said that Wallace would have known not to share any sensitive information on the call because ministers use different communication networks when discussing secrets.
Sunak is now talking about tax policy. He says he did not come into politics to put up taxes, but he also believed it was wrong to keep putting up borrowing. He says he looks to Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson for inspiration. People remember them as tax cutteers, he says, but when they came to office they had to do “similar things” (ie, put up taxes).
But he says he made it clear at the budge that his plan over the rest of the parliament is to “keep cutting taxes” and to “get the tax burden down”.
As the IFS explained yesterday, this may be difficult. (See 9.19am.)
Updated
“I think people respect honesty,” says Rishi Sunak. A few weeks ago this would have been seen as an obvious dig at Sunak’s boss, but it did not sound like that today. He was talking about Treasury policy in the early days of the Covid pandemic, and how he felt it was important to admit that government policy would not be able to save all jobs.
Now he’s talking about the family dog. He was oppoosed to getting a puppy for a long time, he says, but when he became chancellor, he was spending so much time at work that he lost the moral authority to say no.
Rishi Sunak speaks at the Tory conference in Blackpool
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, is about to speak at the Tory conference in Blackpool.
There is a live feed on the Conservative party’s Facebook channel.
He is not doing a platform speech; instead he is doing a Q&A with Paul Maynard, the Conservative MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys.
So far, nothing that Sunak has said has set off the news alarm. Instead, he and Maynard are gently reminiscing about furlough policy.
Updated
This is from my colleague Rowena Mason, who is at the Tory spring conference in Blackpool.
“Getting on with the job” - the branding for Tory spring conference in Blackpool. It feels like a soft relaunch for Boris Johnson is under way after partygate. It’s the first biggish spring conference for some time since it got downgraded to a “forum” by David Cameron pic.twitter.com/LcleL6DdzX
— Rowena Mason (@rowenamason) March 18, 2022
Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, has welcomed Ofcom’s decision to ban the Kremlin-backed TV station, RT. (See 10.09am.)
I welcome @Ofcom’s decision and it’s right that our independent regulator has taken action against RT.
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) March 18, 2022
The outlets' lies and propaganda, where victims are cast as the aggressors and the brutality of Russia’s actions are concealed, have absolutely no place on our screens. https://t.co/3Pltm0vZ0o
Here is the Ministry of Defence’s latest assessment of the state of the war in Ukraine.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 18 March 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 18, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/tVB01HziYQ
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/CGXYNXHMWC
Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, says the government should suspend all licence and contracts held by P&O Ferries, and its parent company, DP World, until the dispute with its sacked workers is resolved.
Haigh, who is visiting Dover today to show support for the seafarers who have lost their jobs, said:
This was a despicable assault on workers’ rights. But British seafarers do not need meaningless platitudes - they need action.
That’s why the government must consider suspending licences and contracts held with DP World, claw back every penny of taxpayers money, and outlaw fire and rehire now.
Boris Johnson went to the UAE [where DP World is based] with a begging bowl, and as he returned eight hundred British workers were sacked without notice by one of their investment arms.
The government must now stand up for loyal workers in Britain being undermined by overseas billionaires.
My colleague Graeme Wearden has full coverage of the dispute on his business live blog.
This must be a line in the sand.
— Louise Haigh (@LouHaigh) March 18, 2022
Overseas billionaires must not get away with trampling over rights.
❌ Suspend licences & contracts P&O and DP World hold w/Gvt.
❌Claw back every penny taken during the pandemic.
❌Outlaw fire and rehire.
Gvt must stand by these loyal workers.
Ofcom revokes UK broadcasting licence of Kremlin-backed RT TV channel
The media regulator, Ofcom, has revoked Russian-backed television channel RT’s licence to broadcast in the UK with immediate effect, my colleague Jim Waterson reports.
Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, said RT should have been banned much sooner. She said:
Labour has long called for Russia Today, Putin’s propaganda factory, to have its licence revoked. We welcome this decision though it should have come much sooner.
Tackling state disinformation is vital to protect our security and democracy, yet inexplicably the online safety bill published yesterday by government fails to mention this. Ministers must strengthen the bill and ensure that state actors trying to undermine our country are thwarted.
Oliver Dowden also used his Telegraph interview to say that he wants more people from working-class parts of the country to stand as Conservative candidates.
He also wants would-be candidates to be subject to “political conviction” tests, the Telegraph’s Christopher Hope reports. Hope says candidates will have to pass four tests covering “sound Conservative disposition, good judgement, integrity and life experience”.
Asked to define Conservative values, Dowden cited as examples:
Thatcher, hard work, aspiration, getting on with life. I’ve never believed the Conservative party stood for knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Equally important to conservatism is the ‘c’ in conservatism preserving the things that we cherish.
That includes “beautiful towns and villages”, the monarchy, countryside and “the great traditions of our nation”, Dowdenn told Hope.
Dowden suggests those criticising Tories over Russian donations close to being racist
In his Telegraph interview Oliver Dowden, the Tory co-chairman, also suggested that people criticising the party for taking donations from people from Russia were close to being racist.
Commenting on Labour critics who frequently attack the Tories on these grounds, he said:
If they’re saying that somebody who was born in Ukraine or born in Russia but is now a British citizen and utterly despises what Putin is doing to Ukraine is somehow precluded from participating in our national life because of their nationality at birth.
Would they say that about somebody that was born in India? Would they say that about somebody that was born in Pakistan? Labour needs to think carefully about that.
The Conservatives have received a lot of money from Russian donors - Labour’s Liam Byrne listed the most notorious in a recent Commons speech - but the donors tend to be people who have lived in the UK for a long time and who have acquired British citizenship. To donate legally to a British political party as an individual, you have to be on the electoral register.
Labour would argue that the problem with some of these donations is not the Russian heritage of the donor, but their links to the Russian government. In relation to some of them, it is not clear at all that they do “utterly despise” Vladimir Putin.
UPDATE: This is from my colleague John Crace.
Not sure that Oliver Dowden in his Telegraph interview is aware how oligarchs came to be billionaires.
— John Crace (@JohnJCrace) March 18, 2022
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Tory chair says taxation at ‘high water mark’ as IFS says tax rises are ‘new normal’ for government
Good morning. We are going to be hearing a lot from the Conservative party today, because the UK party is holding its spring conference in Blackpool and the Scottish party is holding its own one in Aberdeen. Boris Johnson is at the Scottish one, which might be awkward for both sides. Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative party leader, has only recently withdrawn his letter calling for Johnson’s resignation, and although the war in Ukraine made Johnson’s leadership much more secure, he is still far from being a vote-winner in Scotland.
Ahead of the conference in Blackpool, Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party co-chairman, has given an interview to the Daily Telegraph’s Christopher Hope for his podcast, Chopper’s Politics. (Chopper is his Hope’s nickname.) In it, Dowden claimed taxation has now reached the “high water mark” under the party. He said:
We can’t have taxes going up any more. The direction has to be downwards, and I think people get that.
I didn’t join the Conservative party to make it take more people’s money away in taxation. The people that know best how to spend money are people themselves, not the government. And by the way, despite all the great things we were able to do during the Covid crisis, my conviction has only increased.
There is nothing particularly unusual about a Tory chair saying this, but there is a conflict between what the party wants and the demands facing government, or what economists might call reality. The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank explained this will in a briefing yesterday in which it said raising taxation was now the “new normal” for government. It said:
Tax-raising governments have, over the last 30 years, become the norm.
Tax rises since 2010 have in part been a response to a weakening of the public finances (in particular an increase in the structural deficit), caused initially by the financial crisis and more recently by the COVID-19 pandemic. Such pressures will likely be compounded by surging energy prices and the conflict in Ukraine. But governments have also faced an ageing population that demands both more, and more expensive, health and social care ...
Looking further ahead, whether this government cuts taxes in the short run, or finds a way to cut some taxes before the next election, the longer-term direction of travel is clear. This government will not be the last to raise taxes in face of the inexorable spending pressures of an ageing population.
This graph from the IFS briefing illustrates the point.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, speaks at the Conservative party’s spring conference in Blackpool. There are also speeches on the main stage from Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, at 11.35am; Oliver Dowden, the Conservative party co-chair, at 12.30pm; Sajid Javid, the health secretary, at 3pm; Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, at 3.30pm; Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary, at 3.45pm; and Michael Gove, the levelling up secretary, at 5.15pm.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
12pm: The ONS publishes its weekly Covid infection survey.
12.10pm: Sunak address the Scottish Conservative party’s spring conference in Aberdeen by video link.
4pm: Boris Johnson speaks at the Scottish Conservative party conference.
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